catdaddyp

Bump for update.

I doubt he gets drafted, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him work his way onto an NFL roster similar to Zach Morton.

Hopefully, it gets cleaned up. We’ll see. A number of recruits were at the game for the win. We have a chance to really create some momentum.

I didn’t actually see what Nunnally did, only heard about it. I know Reed was about to do something similar back at Nunnally, but then realized it wasn’t the smart thing to do and stopped. I did see coach Wart giving Nunnally an ear full once he came off the field. Bullock certainly seems comfortable and is playing with confidence. I think almost everyone was surprised when he didn't convert that 4th down. His positional flexibility has definitely given the offense a boost. I’d still prefer him to stay in this type of role and maybe used a little more like you mentioned, though I don’t want to see him as QB1. We ran a number of 6 man blitzes against EMU, but the LBs just aren’t getting home. Cooper was so good in that role last year. We’re finally in a good spot with depth on the roster, but we are losing 4 keys players on the DL and 1 (maybe 2?) key on the OL. The portal and JUCO will be important again. Players who will exhaust their eligibility: DL DE - Nunnally DE - Adler DE - Richards DT - Lavea DT - Kapongo OL LT - Blanchard RT - Thomas LT - Fields

Game thread and preview. QB: CJ Ogbonna is the starter after being used almost exclusively in run packages in 2023. Ogbonna has thrown for 1,317 yards and has completed 56% of his passes this season. He has taken care of the football when passing as he has an 8 TD to 2 INT ratio. However, he is one of the nation’s leaders in fumbles. Ogbonna completes 61% of his passes when kept clean compared to 38% when pressured. RB: Junior Al-Jay Henderson has received the bulk of snaps during conference play and has 455 yards and 3 touchdowns on the year. Redshirt freshman Messiah Burch has become the top backup with 145 yards and 2 touchdowns. Burch has a similar running style to Jordon Simmons. WR: Former Nevada transfer Victor Snow is the top receiving option. Snow has 30 receptions for 375 yards and 3 touchdowns. Columbia transfer JJ Jenkins is second on the team with 17 receptions for 225 yards and a touchdown. TE: Former UMASS transfer Jake Orlando is the starting tight end, but he is mostly used as a blocker. OL: Buffalo’s OL has struggled with consistency. The Bulls have given up 17 sacks this season, with 9 of those coming in conference play. LT - Henry Tabansi (R. Fr.) LG - Trevor Brock (Jr.) C - Dom Polizzi (Grad.) RG - Tyler Doty (Sr.) RT - Caelan Shepard (R. Sr.) DL: Samford transfer Kobe Stewart starts at one end spot and is 2nd the MAC with 5 sacks. He also has 19 tackles. Opposite Stewart will likely be Monmouth transfer Antonio Colclough. Colclough has 10 tackles and a sack. Washington State transfer Tristan Souza and redshirt sophomore Cornell Evans start on the interior. They have combined for 17 tackles. LB: Buffalo boasts one of the best linebacker corps in the MAC. Shaun Dolac transferred back in after a brief stay with Utah State and leads the MAC with 108 tackles. He’s also added 3 sacks and 2 interceptions. Redshirt sophomore Red Murdock is 2nd in the MAC with 96 tackles. Murdock has also collected 2 sacks and 3 forced fumbles. The third backer is sophomore Dion Crawford who has 27 tackles and 1.5 sacks. DB: Sophomore Charles McCartherens starts at one CB spot and has 19 tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 1 interception. Former Colgate transfer Marquis Cooper starts opposite McCartherens and has amassed 41 tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 2 interceptions. Former Minnesota transfer Solomon Brown is one starter at safety and has 41 tackles and 3 pass deflections. Opposite Brown is senior Jalen McNair. McNair has 39 tackles, 1 pass deflection, and 1 interception. K: Alabama transfer Upton Bellenfant is 13 for 13 on extra points and 10 of 11 on field goals. P: Old Dominion transfer Ethan Duane is 2nd in the MAC in punting. He is averaging 43.3 yards per punt with a long of 63 yards. Breakdown: Offense - Buffalo wants to run the football and will force the issue on the ground. Buffalo isn’t any better upfront than who the Zips have already faced and Akron has been decent at stopping the run during conference play. Defense - Buffalo has oddly struggled to rush the passer and defend the pass in MAC play. The defensive backs are aggressive and can get beat for big plays due to often being over aggressive. The Bulls strength is in their linebackers and against the run. The LBs rarely miss tackles. Summary: This is another winnable game. At times, Buffalo has looked liked one of the best teams in the MAC and at other times they have looked like one of the worst teams in the MAC. Buffalo will attempt to assert their will in the run game and if Akron can stuff that early, it’ll force Buffalo into an uncomfortable situation. The Zips have yet to amass any interceptions during MAC play, but have been excellent (sans WMU game) at creating fumbles. I imagine Zips defenders will be punching at the ball every time they make contact with Ogbonna. Special teams play should be excellent from both sides.

QB: The utilization of Finley and Bullock was effective again. Finley was excellent outside of maybe 3 throws. The interception could have been a touchdown had Finley gotten enough on it. Instead, the ball hung up in the air and the EMU safety was able to run underneath it. I recall two other times Finley had a wide open receiver and just missed him. Outside of that, it was a great day for Finley. Bullock threw a strike across the middle on one of his passes and was a difference maker in the run game. He also lined up at multiple positions. RB: Simmons collected 109 yards rushing on just 16 attempts. Kellom had 65 yards on 5 carries. The backs pressed their blocks well, ran hard, and protected the football. They were also solid in pass protection. WR: Outside of Golden dropping an easy pass, the wide receivers played well. EMU blanketed Norton for much of the contest, which gave the other wideouts an opportunity against man coverage for much of the game. Norton came up big when he finally had a chance and scored the go-ahead touchdown. TE: I think we used more two tight end sets than any other game this season. Newell was mostly utilized as a blocker, while Cravaack displayed his pass catching ability. Cravaack looks like he’s finally healthy and has that same smooth stride he displayed in high school. He’s one to watch as the season wears on. OL: The offensive line deserves all kinds of praise. They gave the quarterbacks plenty of time, while also opening up holes in the run game. I noticed RG Davis and RT James manhandle some EMU defenders a few times. The OL also did a nice job of consistently climbing up to the linebackers. DL: Despite not collecting a sack (and the foolish “branding a weapon” penalty) I thought Nunnally had one of his best games. There was one play in-particular where Nunnally played both the QB and RB on the mesh and managed to quickly adjust and tackle the QB for no gain. Cheatom also flashed similar ability on a play later in the game. Our interior depth was really tested and it showed in the 2nd half. Neither Lavea or Murphy played. EMU’s offensive pace kept our DTs from subbing as much as usual and that led to diminished effectiveness. Moore and Kapongo played over 55 snaps, which is way too much for 300 pounders. LB: The linebackers were excellent in the run game. However, two of EMU’s passing touchdowns were busts by the LBs. Benenge and Spriggs played their most snaps of the season and are coming along well, but with youth comes mistakes. We are missing Cooper’s ability to rush the passer and cover in space. DB: Golden-Nelson and Reed started again at CB. Reed’s play carried over from last game and he is looking more and more like a player that could be special. EMU went after him a lot and found little success. DeWalt had a few good moments when he came in the game. Hunter’s missed one on one tackle led to an explosive play. We are still thin at safety. P. Lewis and Anderson played nearly every snap with D. Lewis sliding from NB back to safety for depth. Anderson deserves a game ball for all of his hustle plays. He’s the defender that knocked the ball loose around the 2 minute mark and made several other touchdown saving plays. ST: This group was excellent in all phases. Book is proving game after game why he is the best punter in the MAC. Coaching: As usual, the staff had great gameplan coming into the contest. Unfortunately, untimely penalties are still showing up and could have cost us the game. This is the type of win a program can build on. As difficult as it was to see another lead evaporate, it may prove beneficial that the team now knows they have the ability to overcome such a situation. Let’s see if multiple wins can be strung together next week against an inconsistent Buffalo squad. QB: Finley Bullock RB: Simmons Kellom WR: Golden Rush WR: Polk Granger WR: Norton TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Morris C T. Williams RG: K. Davis Burrell RT: James D. Thomas DE: Nunnally Cheatom Richards DT: Kapongo Madden DT: Moore Brockington DE: Adler Dall LB: Fish Benenge Summers LB: McCoy Spriggs NB: D. Lewis Greenwood CB: Reed DeWalt CB: Golden-Nelson Hunter S: P. Lewis D. Lewis S: Anderson D. Lewis Top 5 Players Offense: RG - K. Davis RB - Simmons WR - Norton RT - James LG - Morris Top 5 Players Defense: S - P. Lewis CB - Reed NB - D. Lewis DE - Adler S - J. Anderson

Probably because of EMU’s soft schedule and that we should have beaten WMU in our last outing. Also, we only lost by 3 in double OT last year to EMU and by 6 in 2022.

Yes, injured and has been out since week 3. From what I’ve gathered, he was replaced by a freshman who has played well.

It’s that time again. Offer out to Cornell OL. Starting LT in 2023 and started/played in 2 games this year.

I agree Texas has a territorial advantage. As do the states of Georgia and Florida. However, there is enough talent to recruit in Ohio and the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. I know the staff mostly sticks to a 4 hour radius, but certain coaches on staff - like our OL coach - have personal connections to other states like Florida. Talent should never be the issue. It was under the previous staff, but now there is enough talent on this roster to win some games. Hopefully, that starts on Saturday.

Week 7 Starters for new team: WR - Jasaiah Gathings (UCONN) = BYE WR - Oran Singleton (Eastern Michigan) = 69 snaps. 4 receptions for 23 yards. WR - Anthony Williams (Alcorn State) = 4 snaps. RG - Tony Georges (Kent State) = 67 snaps. RT - Jordan Daniels (Western Carolina) = 56 snaps. RT - Xavior Gray (Liberty) = 63 snaps. RT - Nate Williams (San Diego State) = 65 snaps. DE - Curtis Fann (Western Carolina) = 65 snaps. 7 tackles. LB - Luke Bauer (Morehead State) = 56 snaps. 2 tackles. CB - Tyson Durant (Washington State) = 64 snaps. 5 tackles and 1 interception. S - Corey Thomas (Virginia) = 37 snaps. 4 tackles. S - Jaden Woods (East Tennessee State) = 57 snaps. Backups for new team: TE - Caleb Anderson (Alcorn State) = 25 snaps. DE - Ryan Johnson (Southern Miss) = 49 snaps. 3 tackles. S - KJ Martin (NC State) = 10 snaps. 2 tackles. DNP: QB - Ryan Jankowski (UMASS) QB - Dijon Jennings (Weber State)* QB - Steele Wasel (Oklahoma) RB - CJ Price (Jackson State) RT - Ronan Chambers (Auburn)* OL - Ka’Marii Landers (Baylor) OL - Alex Robarge (Southern Illinois) LB - Andrew Behm (Southern Illinois) LB - Jaharon Griffin (Alcorn State)* DB - Rishad Hence (Eastern Kentucky) I’m giving it a few days to update snaps for this past week’s games and will post Week 8 results soon.

Bump for update.

Game thread and preview: QB: Buffalo transfer Cole Snyder has done an excellent job taking care of the football when passing. He has thrown for 1,468 yards, completed 61% of his passes, and has thrown 7 touchdowns compared to only 2 interceptions. Snyder completes 66% of his throws when kept clean. He has also been a threat in the run game, running for 194 yards and 4 touchdowns. Where Snyder has not been good is under pressure. He’s been sacked 23 times, completes 42% of his passes under pressure, and has fumbled 3 times. RB: NC State transfer Delbert Mimms is 4th in the MAC with 482 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns. He’s a strong runner, but probably not on par with WMU’s Nixon or Ohio’s Tyus. However, Mimms has only fumbled once this season. WR: The wealth has been distributed fairly evenly between JUCO (formerly Akron) Oran Singleton, former Michigan State transfer Terry Lockett, and JUCO (formerly Wisconsin) Markus Allen. Each receiver has over 300 yards receiving and at least one touchdown. TE: Junior Max Reese and senior Jere Getzinger split time at tight end. Reese is more of a receiver with 166 yards and 2 touchdowns. OL: This is an OL that has some older guys, but does not necessarily have a tremendous amount of experience at this level. LT - Blake Bustard (Sr.) (Wayne State transfer) LG - Mickey Rewolinski (Sr.) C - Carson Lee (Sr.) RG - Broderick Roman (Sr.) RT - Joshua Anderson (Jr.) DL: Seniors Justin Jefferson and Joey Zelinski start at the end spots. Jefferson has 20 tackles and 3 sacks, while Zelinski has 14 tackles and 2 sacks. Senior Peyton Price and Indianapolis transfer Dylan Shelton start on the interior. The duo has combined for 45 tackles and 3.5 sacks. LB: The linebacker corps has gotten a little thin due to injuries. Kent State transfer Luke Murphy will likey start beside Arizona State transfer James Djonkam. Murphy leads the team in tackles with 41. Djonkam has collected 30 tackles and 2 sacks. DB: Former JUCO Dramarian McNulty and sophomore Daiquan White are the usual starters at cornerback, with sophomore Javian Norman at nickleback. McNulty has 16 tackles and a pass defended. White has 18 tackles and 3 passes defended. Norman has 11 tackles and 0.5 sack. Senior Quentavius Scandrett has been a starter all season at safety and has 30 tackles. Junior Barry Manning saw his first start last week against CMU. He has 7 tackles and a forced fumble. K: Senior Jesus Gomez has made 21 of 22 extra points and leads the MAC with 15 (out of 18) made field goals. P: Senior Mitchell Tomasek is 3rd in the MAC in punting with a 43.7 average. KR/PR: Sophomore Deion Brown averages 19 yards per return with a long of 29 yards. Oran Singleton is the PR with a long of 18 yards. Breakdown: Offense - EMU wants to run the football and will often include Snyder in the ground gameplan. Snyder doesn’t make a ton of mistakes, so if Akron can force a few turnovers, it will be important to capitalize on them. EMU has been much better than Akron at finishing off drives with points. Defense - EMU and Akron defensive numbers are similar in MAC play. The biggest difference is EMU has managed to create more turnovers. Summary: It’s another winnable game. In my opinion, the talent between the two teams is on par and it’ll come down to coaching/disciple. EMU has had a much easier road than Akron, so it’ll be interesting to see how good the 2024 EMU squad actually is.

Absolutely. Our defense certainly isn’t without fault. I can’t find any kind of stats to reflect this, but our “sudden” defense has been horrendous.

Here are some rankings & stats that don’t show up on the MAC site: Run Blocking (MAC games only): 1 - WMU 2 - NIU 3 - Miami 4 - Ball 5 - CMU 6 - EMU 7 - BG 8 - Ohio 9 - Toledo 10 - Akron 11 - Buffalo 12 - Kent Pass Blocking (MAC games only): 1 - WMU 2 - NIU 3 - Ball 4 - Buffalo 5 - BG 6 - EMU 7 - Akron 8 - Miami 9 - Toledo 10 - CMU 11 - Ohio 12 - Kent Pass + Run Blocking (MAC games only): 1 - WMU 2 - NIU 3 - Ball 4 - Miami 5 - EMU 6 - BG 7 - Toledo 8 - Akron 9 - CMU 10 - Buffalo 11 - Ohio 12 - Kent - Our receivers have dropped 17 balls so far. To put that in perspective, we only dropped 17 all of last year. - Finley is completing 66% of his passes when kept clean compared to 45% under pressure. Adjusted without the drops would take those numbers up to 75% and 59% respectively. - Finley has thrown 4 of his 7 interceptions when “kept clean.” - It may not seem it, but the OL is actually giving Finley similar time as our opponents’ OLs are giving their QBs. - Runs off RT/TE have been our best rushing plays and we are averaging 7.8 yards per carry on it. - Norton has been the best blocking wide out. I think we all know this by now, but if we quit shooting ourselves in the foot, we’ll actually win some games.

All those guys, outside of Frye, would take a pay cut coming to Akron. And I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance Frye would come after having a realistic conversation with Moorhead about the state of program and expectations. If Moorhead is let go after this season, might as well start looking towards the FCS and lower ranks as no one worth their salt at the FBS level will take this job. They’ll realize the expectations are to win immediately, while having a shell of a budget to work with, and expected to win against P4 competition. After all, this thread was started during our midst of P4 competition. They’ll also have to refill the roster all over again as most of the talent that has been collected by Moorhead will surely bolt. Moorhead took over the worst roster in the FBS and has had 2 true full recruiting cycles. The first was hastily put together and It’s amazing he was able to pull in the guys he did to begin with. That said, we only have 8 players left from that class and only 2 players from the Arth regime are even starting for us. Should we have more wins? Absolutely. But we also had 3 losses built in this year. I do want to see a few wins to close out the season to show some progress in the win column. For anyone who believes it can’t get worse and have forgotten the path this program was on under Arth, here are his 2022 commitments and what they’ve gone on to do: QB - Amari Jones = Signed with FIU. He is still at FIU and has played a total of 10 snaps on offense. WR - Eric Holley = Signed with Toledo. Still at Toledo and is a backup. WR - Rahsan Murray = Signed with DII Cal (PA) Vulcans. Still at Cal and is a backup DB. OL - Van Keen = Signed with Youngstown State. He is still at YSU and became a starter this year. CB - Keyone Nixon = Signed with Morgan State. Currently N/A. S - Montarious Reed = Signed with Western Illinois. Currently at a JUCO.

Some notable bye week stats: - Finley leads the MAC in passing yards with 1,456. He is also tied for the most interceptions with 7. - Norton leads all WRs in the MAC with 541 yards. He is 2nd overall and trails only BGSU’s Fannin. - McCoy is 3rd in tackles with 65 total. D. Lewis and Fish are tied for 9th with 46 total. - Nunnally and Adler are tied for 9th in sacks with 3 a piece. - Golden-Nelson is tied for 7th with 4 passes defended. - Smith is 5th in field goals made. - Book leads the MAC in total punting yards and average per punt.

I took some time to review how many players our opponents are utilizing that came before the 2022 class. A few things come to mind: - Every team has at least 2 starting OL and 2 starting DL (most have 3 or more). - Every team has at least 7 starters. - Add “excluding Kent” to the statements above. - NIU has done the best job of retaining players. - 2022 is not listed, but the majority WMU’s most productive players come from 2022 and before. Taylor is currently the beneficiary of the previous staff’s recruiting. - This isn’t to serve as an excuse for losing, but does reflect how far behind the roster was when Moorhead took over. - Our OL isn’t elite, but they also haven’t been bad in MAC play. Makes me wonder how much better the OL would be had the overall recruiting and development been better under the previous staff. - An asterisk has been placed beside players that have started at least half the games this season. The other players listed are backups that see significant snaps. Akron DE - Adler * S - D. Lewis * Ohio OL - Atkinson * OL - Titsworth * OL - Weatherspoon * DE - Weaver * DT - Henderson * DT - Mayfield LB - Taylor * CB - Parodie * Bowling Green RB - Patterson RB - Stewart * RB - Johnson * TE - Gazarek * OL - Padgett * OL - Roberts * OL - Wollschlaeger * ED - Porter ED - Rosser * ED - Saad * DT - Brown * DT - Hawkins * LB - Horne * S - Day S - McGary * WMU RB - Abdus-Salaam WR - Dieudonne * WR - Sambucci * TE - Bosma * OL - Gideon * OL - Hofer * OL - Sherwin * OL - West * DE - Lee * DE - Walker * DT - Nelson * LB - Bonnema NB - Roberson * S - Wofford * EMU TE - Getzinger OL - Janvier * OL - Rewolinski * OL - Roman * DE - Evans DE - Jefferson * DT - Price * S - Carter * S - Scandrett * Buffalo RB - Henderson * WR - Cuff OL - Doty * OL -Polizzi * OL - Shepard * ED - Bazile DT - Folsom DT - Souza * DT - Wolo * LB - Dolac * NB - McNair * S - Fuqua * NIU QB - Hampton * RB - Brown * WR - Rudolph * TE - Lampe TE - Tewes * OL - Buss * OL - Champe * OL - Lippe * OL - Schooley OL - Zschernitz * DE - Davis DE - Oppong DE - Williams * DT - Haberman * DT - O’Malley * DT - Taylor LB - Dolphin * NB - Prophete * CB - Byrd * S - Valcarcel * Kent WR - Floriea * DE - Harmon * LB - Johns * S - Branch * Toledo QB - Gleason * RB - Stuart * WR - Newton * OL - Fouty * OL - Spoth * DT - Alexander * DT - Butler * DT - Carter DT - Poynter LB - Barrow * LB - Bolden * LB - Ragin * S - Hook *

Yeah, one would think with all the All-MAC players Moorhead has had on that side of the ball, the offensive numbers would be higher. Moorhead: QB - Irons WR - SJL WR - Adams WR - George WR - Gathings OL - Whigan *WR Norton, TE Newell, and OL Blanchard will likely make it this year. Arth: RB - Dollard WR - Mumpfield TE - Brank

It’s too big of time suck for me to go back and do all 5 years, but here are the 2021 stats (Arth’s 3rd year) vs the 2024 stats (Moorhead’s 3rd year). Arth Vs P4: Outscored 59.5 - 8.5 Yardage 617.5 - 208.5 Vs Non-P4: Outscored 35.5 - 22.1 Yardage 437.4 - 356.6 Moorhead Vs P4: Outscored 50.3 - 10 Yardage 489.3 - 212.6 Vs Non-P4 Outscored 27.7 - 21.2 Yardage 364 - 354 The caveats here are that the 2024 team played 3 Power games and the 2021 team played 2. Also, Arth did not finish out the final 3 games of 2021. And there’s always a chance the last 5 games of 2024 alter the 2024 stats. On the surface, there is little difference in the offensive numbers. Defensively is where there is a substantial difference. Edit - Might as well further this comparison: Arth: Wins: 3 One Score Wins: 0 One Score Losses: 3 Moorhead: Wins: 5 One Score Wins: 3 One Score Losses: 11

Here’s a further breakdown: Vs P4: Outscored 50.3 - 10 Yardage 489.3 - 212.6 Vs Non-P4 Outscored 27.7 - 21.2 Yardage 364 - 354

I’m not in the locker room, but I don’t think culture is an issue. The players seem to generally be good guys and they play hard. Discipline is there to an extent. It’s just not where it needs to be in my opinion.